Ghostly Beginnings
by Buixy
Summary: Melody didn't think she would ever manifest a Quirk. Even her best friend had his, so why did she still not have one? A One-Shot of the day Melody Halloway discovered her Quirk. Based on Characters and plotlines from 'Purpose of a Hero', so don't read this unless you've read that. Damn, summaries are hard, eh?


**Welp, Thalio opened the floodgates. Let's get right into this.**

_Purpose of a Hero_

**May 4, 2307 (Melody is 4 here)**

"Oh, Peanut. What's wrong? Was it that bully again?" Harmony asked as her daughter started shaking once they rounded the corner and onto the street that Precious Tots preschool was on. She'd first noticed her daughter's foul mood the night before when she'd not eaten her dinner and refused to be read a bedtime story, despite her offering to tell an Oddball story.

"Chrissy made fun of me yesterday 'cuse I don't have a Quirk. Can we just go home? I don't wanna go to school today!" Melody whined, burying her face into her mother's bright blue apron. Harmony smiled and patted the toddler on her head, which did nothing to calm her sobs. This had become quite the regular occurrence in the Halloway household over the past month or so since the Larson boy had manifested his own Quirk, one very similar to his own father. Harmony had never seen her daughter so happy when she came home from the playground with a cat-ified Nathan. Unfortunately, this left her daughter as the last child in her class, other than the two that were confirmed to be Quirkless, to have not gotten her own.

"You know… your grandfather didn't get a Quirk until he was nine years old?" The black-haired woman said matter-of-factly. Large, teary green eyes looked up at her in the kind of wonder only a child could emote.

"Really?" Her mother nodded earnestly and wrapped the girl into a tight hug.

"Don't you worry about a thing, Peanut. You are most certainly going to get the greatest Quirk of all time and be the best Hero this world has ever seen. I promise." Melody's brow crinkled and she tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"But mama, you're already the best Hero. I hope I get you're Quirk! That way when I cry when Chrissy makes fun of me I can get her all wet!" The girl finished with a devious smile, which caused her mother to laugh.

"You are so much like your father," she said, squeezing the girl a bit tighter. Just then, an upbeat pop song, one of Melody's favorites, filled the air. Harmony sighed, reached into her pocket and pulled out a small black device. "Hello? Oh, Lydia? Okay, calm down… no, I can expl- Lydia! Take a breath. Alright, just let me see Melody off to school and I will be right there."

"Mama?" Harmony sighed and gave her daughter a sad smile.

"It's nothing, Peanut. I've just gotta go to work." Upon seeing the crestfallen look on Melody's face, the woman came to a quick decision. "Listen, I've gotta go see Miss Vesuvius about something. I'll be back in time for dinner, okay? If you're a good girl for your daddy, I'll take you to the office with me on Saturday. Does that sound good?"

"Okay, mama," the redhead mumbled, still sounding slightly put off by her mother's sudden call to action. Harmony released her daughter, rose to her feet and kissed the girl on the crown of her head before lightly pushing her in the direction of the schoolhouse.

"Love you lots!"

"Love you three-thousand!" Melody called back before running off towards a familiar blonde-haired child. As she watched the girl go, Harmony glanced back down at the device in her hand as a pit of dread formed in her stomach. '_Lydia, please don't do anything rash.'_

"Come on, Mel!" Nathan cried as he dragged Melody by her wrist toward the front door of the school. Just before the two entered, the redhead took one last look back at her mother standing at the edge of the playground with a frown on her face. '_That's weird. Mama's never sad,'_ the toddler thought as her friend dragged her further into the crowd.

_Purpose of a Hero_

"Little Quirkless Melody, you stink!" A brunette girl, slightly taller and stockier than others her age, taunted as she walked by. Nathan's tail tensed up and he got that look in his eye that always led to the two of them getting in trouble, a look Melody was not very fond of… especially during recess.

"Nathan," she said warningly, breaking the boy's glaring contest with his unknowing adversary. Impatient blue eyes turned on her before darting back towards Chrissy. "No! You already got us in trouble when you kept poking me with your tail during naptime!"

"Come on, Mel. She's such a b-"

"NATHAN LARSON! You watch your mouth!" Melody screeched, her childish voice echoing all around the yard, causing quite a few eyes to turn in their direction. This included their hawk-eyed teacher, Mrs. Norrington, who openly despised Nathan, and by extension Melody, for his near-constant foolishness.

"You're mean," the cat-boy pouted, crossing his arms over his chest and whacking Melody in the side of her head with his tail. Smugly, the redhead smacked his tail away and started walking towards her favorite piece of equipment on the schoolyard, the swings. Melody had always hated the swingset at the park near her family's home. They were rusty and made horrible noises whenever someone rode them, not to mention two of the swings had been broken… one by Nathan… which left just one for all the kids in her neighborhood to fight over. Meanwhile, the swings at school were just like new… though Nathan had still broken one by going too high and the chain snapped.

"You gotta stop getting in trouble or else your mom won't let you come with us to the beach next weekend," Melody informed her friend as he took the swing directly next to her, a sour look on his face at the mention of his mother.

"She would never even know," he argued, immediately kicking his legs and testing the limits of how high the chain would allow him to go without threatening to send him flying again.

"She always knows because Mrs. Nottingham _always _knows." Nathan scowled at the name and very nearly fell off his swing at the top of its arc.

"Stupid eagle eyes. What a dumb Quirk."

"It's better than no Quirk," Melody replied miserably, hanging her head.

"Hey! Don't let pissy Chrissy get in your head! You're definitely going to get a Quirk! I bet you one million dollars you get it by the end of the week!" Nathan declared, leaping off of his swing at its apex and landing firmly on his feet.

"Show off cat," Melody grumbled. Before her friend could continue, the bell signifying the end of recess echoed over the yard. With a sigh, the redhead got off of her swing and started trudging back towards the schoolhouse.

_Purpose of a Hero_

"So, if one cow has four legs, how many would three cows have together?" Mrs. Nottingham asked her, mostly, attentive class. As usual, Nathan had found his way onto the top of the arts and crafts dresser at the back of the room, where the teacher couldn't reach him and had curled up for a nap. Seated at a normal desk, Melody was also barely paying attention to the lesson before them. Instead, she stared out at the cityscape of Brooklyn with a wistful smile on her face. '_Mama's agency is just over there. I wonder what Miss Vesuvius wanted? She's always so nice to me and gives me sweets, but she sounded really angry on mama's phone.'_ As the girl pondered this, she failed to notice her pencil, which had been lazily gripped in one of her hands, clatter to the floor. What she did note, however, was her hair beginning to stand on end. "Miss Halloway?"

"AH!" She screamed as darkness engulfed her and a chill ran down her spine. For a moment she saw nothing and then… she was falling towards a row of desks without any way to stop herself. Except, she didn't need to, as just with her own she phased right through the desks, and the people sitting in them, before finally coming to rest on the linoleum floor.

"What in the world?" A gruff, male voice cried in shock. As her own astonishment cleared, Melody looked up and came face to face with a stunned-looking group of her fellow students, including Chrissy, as well as the other preschool teacher, Mr. Vern. "Halloway?"

"I… I have a Quirk!" The redhead cheered with tears in her eyes and for the rest of the day, Melody regaled the other toddlers with the story of how she'd fallen through the floor and scared Chrissy so bad she started crying. When the final bell rang, the redhead dragged Nathan out of the classroom before their teacher could even get a word in. She was so absolutely giddy about telling her mama and papa about her new Quirk, that almost didn't notice the fire engines and police cars surging past the school, nor did she notice the grave look on her father's face.

_Purpose of a Hero_

**DAMNIT! I did not originally consider this story to have this much weight behind it but the idea seemed too perfect in my head. Not to mention that I typed out a quarter of this story before realizing what date I'd put in as well as Melody's age and… shit. This is a One-Shot, but it is also something I may put into the main story at some point. Probably not all of this, most likely just a summary, but I felt this would be a fun story to tell.**

**And yes… I had to do the Endgame reference once I realized the direction I was going with this.**


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